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Win a World Book Night book!

Today I picked up my box of 48 copies of Yann Martel’s book Life of Pi from my local branch of Waterstones (who gave me a £5.00 off my next purchase voucher! Woop wooooop!!). They are now all sitting on my kitchen worktop waiting to be wrapped and dropped through ususpecting letterboxes in Wakefield on Saturday night.

To celebrate the first ever World Book Night event, I am also offering TWO copies of this brilliant book here. I will be offering this to UK residents only (really sorry – normally my giveaways are international, but a) I have done a few of those recently and I have to watch the pennies and b) this is a UK initiative and it would be nice for someone close to home to win a copy. Really sorry to exclude non UK residents and I promise that my next giveaway will include you all 🙂

Why I love this book

I first read this book when I was was on holiday in 2004 and going from China to Malaysia. I knew I would be on a boat in the Malacca Straits at some point and thought I would amuse myself by taking a book about a shipwreck in that exact stretch of water (I have a bizarre sense of humour!)

What I had hoped would be an enjoyable read turned out to be one of the loves of my life in book terms. Rarely does a book come along that is such a treat that you still think about it years after reading it. This is one of those books.

Pi Patel is a young boy who is brought up in a zoo in India with his parents and brother. After the family decided to emigrate they board a ferry (along withan asortment of their many furry / stripy/ four-legged/ long-necked friends where disaster awaits them and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with only a zebra, oragutang, hyena and sea-sick tiger named Richard Parker for company.

This book made me laugh, cry and totally fall head over heels in love with a Begal Tiger! I really lived through that whole journey with Pi Patel and companions. I wept over the Zebra and Orange Juice the Orang-Utan and howled with laughter at the thought of this huge, stripey hunk of fur that went by the name of Richard Parker swatting flying fish with his paws on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.

This book really is a gem and an unforgettable one at that. Infact, I was so taken by surprise by my love for Life of Pi that I was quite unprepared for feeling so low when I had finnished it. It was a whole 3 days before I could even pick anything up without shoving it back in my suitcase in disgust again.

Beautifully written, wonderfully engaging and a real joy to live through. It will be a long time before I will love a character like Richard Parker again. And to prove my point, Richard Parker is still my favourite literary character hence these stripey things that have made their way into my life ever since!

Have I made you want to read it?

If you would like to win a copy please just comment below (with your email address) and I will randomly pick someone after the competition closes at midight on Sunday 6th March. Winners will be announced on Monday when I will post about how Saturday night went 🙂

Want to double your chances?

Louise, who is a reader of this blog but doesn’t have her own, is also giving away copies of Life of Pi for World Book Night and she, too, has two copies of the book to send to 2 lucky winners (again UK residents only please). Please email Louise at bunny_hops [at] hotmail [dot] co.uk and she will pick the winners out of a hat!

I wonder why ‘world’ book night is a UK initiative? I live in Australia and when I heard about world book night I go excited and went straight over to their websites to join in, only to find that Australia is excluded. Bummer. Hopefully next year it will become a world event.

I went to pick up my Pi’s today and they were still waiting for them to be delivered!…Waterstones said they should come tomorrow or Saturday morning at the latest, i’m really hoping they come tomorrow,i’ve got a lot to get sorted!

How big was the box? was it very heavy and awkward to carry?

Are you still up for hosting for me? Would you prefer to do it separately from your giveaway, a few days later or whatever is best for you 🙂

I think 2 copies and to keep it open to the UK 🙂 If people would like to email me direct,and i can print the entries off and pull 2 winners out of a box, if thats easier for you?… Whatever you’d like to do Ms Boof 😉

Yay another chance to get this book – it has been a must read for years but yet again due to lack of funds and time to get around to it, just never happened.
Fingers crossed. So email = blogabooketc@gmail.com
😀

I read the first few pages of this ona free iphone ebook – but since I’m a lover of actual books, not electronic ones – I never got around to reading it, although was really impressed with the first few pages!

Hi Boof…. hope your book night giving went well 🙂 I’m exhausted but it was fun 🙂 just wanted to let you know, i pulled 2 names out of a hat and the winners were… mrs_cb and young1. thanks again for doing this,you’re a star 😉

The Book Whisperer

Hello and welcome to The Book Whisperer blog. My name is Rebecca and I am a bookaholic. I have a very serious book-buying habit that I have yet to find a cure for.

In this blog I read, review and discuss books - big books, small books, fat books, thin books, books that make me laugh, books that make me cry, books that fizz off the pages, books that have me chasing down dark alleys, books that shock me and WTF books.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” I hear ya, Jorge Luis Borges.